[2/13/2011] Sampling the world of Shostakovich's string quartets with Nos. 6 and 14 (continued)

The Fitzwilliam Quartet plays the central Adagio of the Shostakovich 14th Quartet.

SHOSTAKOVICH'S QUARTET NO. 6

I'm not going to say much about the Sixth Quartet, except to encourage you to listen to how many different kinds of music it embodies, shifting and transforming constantly. (I always think of Haydn, the classical composer who "developed" his musical materials most compulsively, never waiting for the formal "development" section of a sonata-form movement.) This is also the challenge of the performers: to fully embrace and realize each moment.

Here's the generally jolly first movement.

Quartet No. 6 in G, Op. 101: i. Allegretto
Borodin Quartet (Rostislav Dubinsky and Yaroslav Alexandrov, violins; Dmitri Shebalin, viola; Valentin Berlinsky, cello). Melodiya/Chandos, recorded in the early '60s

Here's the second movement -- a little waltz!

Quartet No. 6 in G, Op. 101: ii. Moderato con moto
Borodin Quartet

Here's the suitably more reflective, and distinctly darker-character slow movement.

Quartet No. 6 in G, Op. 101: iii. Lento
Borodin Quartet

Where would you expect the piece to go from here?

Quartet No. 6 in G, Op. 101: iv. Lento; Allegretto
Borodin Quartet


THE COMPLETE SIXTH QUARTET

SHOSTAKOVICH: Quartet No. 6 in G, Op. 101:
i. Allegretto
ii. Moderato con moto
iii. Lento
iv. Lento; Allegretto

St. Petersburg Quartet (Alla Aranovskaya and Ilya Teplyakov, violins; Konstantin Kats, viola; Leonid Shukaev, cello). Hyperion, recorded April 1999

SHOSTAKOVICH'S QUARTET NO. 14

The 14th Quartet is a large, generally dark and introspective piece, whose three movements -- performed without interruption -- are strikingly close in length and weight. Overall pacing of individual performances may vary, but the proportions tend to remain more or less constant. Our three performances time out:

Glinka Quartet -- 8:54, 9:06. and 8:32
Shostakovich Quartet -- 8:44, 9:39, 8:22
St. Petersburg Quartet -- 9:09, 10:01, 9:14

Here's the first minute and a half or so of the first movement, establishing the brooding, spiky mood, rising from the quartet's sonic depths to its heights and dropping back down again. Our excerpt performances are by the Moscow-based Glinka Quartet, which was founded in 1964 and, like the original Borodin, was split in half by emigration, in this case of the bottom half, violist Alexander Galkovsky and cellist Alexander Korchagin emigrating separately to the Netherlands in 1978 (later forming a New Glinka Quartet). Left-behind second violinist Sergei Pishchugin quickly found a new home with the Shostakovich Quartet.

1st movement opening
Glinka Quartet (Alexander Arenkov and Sergei Pishchugin, violins; Misha Geller, viola; Dmitri Ferschman, cello). Praga, Czech radio broadcast, 1976

Now we hear the last minute and a half or so of the movement, which has undergone a distinct alteration in mood. We start at roughly 8:07 of the movement. Note in particular what happens at 0:13 of our little excerpt.

1st movement conclusion, "The Theme"
Glinka Quartet

Here's the complete first movement:

Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp, Op. 142: i. Allegretto
Shostakovich Quartet (Andrei Shishlov and Sergei Pishchugin, violins; Alexander Galkovsky, viola; Alexander Korchagin, cello). Melodiya/Olympia, recorded 1988

2nd movement opening
Glinka Quartet

We pick up not quite halfway through the movement, at 3:44, and hear a distinct change in mood, segue-ing into a lushly lyrical major-key moment at 0:35 of our excerpt -- and then, at 1:10, what do we suddenly hear?

2nd movement, "The Theme"
Glinka Quartet

Here's the complete second movement:

SHOSTAKOVICH: Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp, Op. 142: ii. Adagio
Shostakovich Quartet

The third movement plunges us into a new sound world, one that -- as usual with Shostakovich -- is immediately transforming itself.

3rd movement opening
Glinka Quartet

Now we pick up at 5:20 of the movement, and continue to the end. And what do we hear at 0:43 and 0:54?

3rd movement, "The Theme"
Glinka Quartet

And here's the complete third movement:

Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp, Op. 142: iii. Allegretto; Adagio
Shostakovich Quartet


THE COMPLETE 14TH QUARTET

Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp, Op. 142:
i. Allegretto . . . ii. Adagio . . . iii. Allegretto; Adagio

St. Petersburg Quartet (Alla Aranovskaya and Ilya Teplyakov, violins; Alexei Koptev, viola; Leonid Shukaev, cello). Hyperion, recorded December 2002-January 2003


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